Dash
by kklo
Summary: Splinter had been poisoned and his students must try to find the one responsible as well as an antidote. Written for a TMNT contest in 2001. It got in spot 7 out of 9, which fits since I was not very happy with this story. The follow-up is much better.


This short story is named "-" (dash).  
  
Interpret it in any way you wish.  
  
It's supposed to be based on the Ninja Turtles universe we have been told about through the comics published by wellknown Mirage.  
  
Respectively characters you know from the Mirage comics are formed by their specific authors.  
  
The ones you can't recognize are sprung out of my own imagination and they CAN be used without my permission, though I sure as hell wouldn't like it.  
  
Songs published in this documents are all written by Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys.  
  
~Knogklo  
  
http://www.undermanhattan.com/dawnatello/challengewinners.html  
  
Go here to get more information about the contest in which I participated.  
  
  
  
-  
  
by Ludwig A. Wizard  
  
Jan/Feb 2001  
  
  
  
Waking up.  
  
Feeling cold metal against my cheek.  
  
Bars?  
  
A floor consisting of bars?  
  
Where am I?  
  
Standing up, looking around, feeling the heat steaming up from a hidden source below.  
  
The enviroment is too dusky and prevents me from seeing clearly.  
  
Dark shadows are moving all around me.  
  
An odd dance in the faint light and they grow stronger, before fading out again.  
  
Now the white steams are making me perspire as well as caressing my face with their hot breaths.  
  
In front of me there's a little silhoeutte of what could either be a child or a dwarf, although the first appears to be more likely rather than the latter.  
  
Its contours are moving constantly and it rushes out in the dark before I can ask why.  
  
Then I see a largem monstrous shape loom before me.  
  
The lights begin to flash faster and faster.  
  
Dancing, twirling, singing and laughing at my fear.  
  
Then, a fire explodes out of nowhere and comes rushing.  
  
That is where I wake up.  
  
Waking up again...  
  
  
  
Leonardo sat on the edge of his turn-in, wiping his forehead with the corner of the sheet.  
  
Nightmares were for children and he was grown up.  
  
He had not suffered from insomnia or troubled sleep at all the last months.  
  
Every evening when he went to bed, it was usually with a feeling of contentment.  
  
All duties of the day had been fullfilled and his corporeal self needed to regain the strength it earned.  
  
He sighed lowly and tried to recall the fragments of the dream.  
  
Tried to figure out if it meant something special.  
  
Perhaps it was a premonitory sign?  
  
Unable to go back to sleep, Leonardo continued to ponder while the fullmoon that he couldn't see slowly moved over the heaven's vault.  
  
  
  
"Leonardo! Leonardo, wake up!"  
  
A light feminine voice chirped like a bird.  
  
Someone shook his shoulder.  
  
"Mmmm?" He opened his tired eyes and rubbed them slowly. "April?"  
  
Yes, it was her who stood there by his shelter with worried eyes and a tense face expression.  
  
"Splinter has not come back from his morning-walk to the hill!"  
  
Leonardo could always interpret the tone in her voice to figure out her feelings.  
  
Maybe his brothers also could, but he had never talked with them about it because he didn't want to talk about her emotions as if he knew all about them.  
  
At that time, all he could apprehend was a rather high level on the worry- range.  
  
"Have you been looking for him?"  
  
"Yes! I was going there first and when he wasn't there I went here and nobody haven't seen him!"  
  
The turtle sat up, grabbed his bandana and tied it quickly around the head.  
  
"We're going out, looking for him immediately!"  
  
No sooner said than done, all five of them went on a search through the sewers hidden and secret tunnels.  
  
They had teamed up in two, since Leonardo didn't want anyone to go alone in case of a surprise-attack.  
  
April accompanied him and Miche to the west, while Raphael and Don headed north.  
  
Time time went by and they continued the fruitless search and was about to give up when Leonardo found him.  
  
The Sensei was lying in one of the smaller tunnels, the face down in the dirt.  
  
At first sight he appeared to be dead, but he was still breathing  
  
Carefully and slowly, Leonardo lifted the mutated rat's body and carried him out to April and Mike who were waiting.  
  
"You found him! Is he…?"  
  
"No, April. He is only unconscious."  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"I don't know. I just found him in there."  
  
"We must take him back, quick." April said silently.  
  
  
  
"He is poisoned."  
  
"Poisoned?? Shit, you must be kiddin' Don!"  
  
"I am not!" Donatello eyed Raphael sharply. "He has inhaled toxic fumes from someplace. All I have is this." His three-fingered hand pulled up a test-tube filled of s brownish, dirty-looking liquid.  
  
"It looks like a toxin, but I have never seen anything like it."  
  
"To hell with your science-shit!!" Raphael ranted. "Can you cure it?"  
  
His brother slowly shook his head.  
  
"Whatta ya mean you can't???"  
  
"Raph..." Leonardo put his brother didn't listen. He was approching Don threatening.  
  
"Stop it! For heaven's sake!"  
  
Leonardo sighed relieved when April cut in with her stop-or-else-I-might- begin-to-cry voice.  
  
Raphael stopped.  
  
"How do you think fighting's gonna help him??"  
  
She was balancing on the edge between rage and tears and they all heard it.  
  
"I have never seen a toxin like this and I have no equipment to clean his blood!" Donatello tried to defend himself. "The one who dropped the chemicals ought to know though."  
  
"Very well." Raphael said and clenched his fist so hard that the knuckles whitened. "Let's find the asshole who did this, and make him speak!"  
  
  
  
"Just give him the medication if he has problems breathing, and try to talk to him if he is having a delirium, okay?"  
  
"Okay..."  
  
Donatello let his hand find her shoulder and caressed it comforting as he smiled weakly.  
  
"Don't worry, I bet you'll do great."  
  
"I hope so." She didn't seem to be convinced.  
  
"You will. We will come back soon."  
  
He left her with Splinter and headed for the exit.  
  
His three brothers were waiting outside for him.  
  
Now, they could finally begin their search for whoever who dropped the toxic into the sewers.  
  
  
  
"Dudes, where do you think this stuff came from?"  
  
They had followed Splinter's way from the tunnel where he was found, through a sewer they rarely had been in and ended up in a little room, built by some unknown reason.  
  
In one corner were there pieces of a smashed flask from where the deadly chemicals had been leaking out.  
  
There was not an usual illegal dumping.  
  
Somebody had poured out the contents there on purpose to cause intoxication.  
  
Somebody had used a water hose to spread the toxic into the tunnel Splinter used to go through to reach the isolated hill where he used to watch the aurora and meditate.  
  
Donatello carefully picked up the smashed flask with a pair of long tweezers, then holding it before the face.  
  
"No idea, Mike. There aren't any signs of prints on this." He said with a little sigh.  
  
"They must have come from up there!"  
  
Leonardo felt a little irritation over that Michelangelo obviously had decided that there were several humans involved in this.  
  
Although his point about where they had came from probably was correct.  
  
A few yards above their heads was a manhole located.  
  
  
  
"Well, we don't know much more now than we did down there?" Raphael said with deadly sarcasm.  
  
Leonardo fought an urgue to give a likewise reply, but repressed that and concentrated to examine the silent lane.  
  
Just a bunch of dumpsters like in any lane, with cats fighting over the garbage.  
  
Completely usual.  
  
Then, why was he sure he had heard something?  
  
A sound of sneaking feet.  
  
There! Again!  
  
Now had his three brothers also heard it.  
  
"Get the weapons ready!" Leonardo said lowly and let the two katanas slip out of the sheaths on his back.  
  
A shadow they hadn't recognized jumped down from the fire ladder and looked at them.  
  
"Greetings!" A grating male voice said in japenese as the shadowy figure moved closer with lithe, well co-ordinated steps.  
  
"We are here to terminate all of you. We heard that you have disgraced our brothers and sisters in the Foot and you have also try to fight for the Good in this world. Then there is no other option: you must die!"  
  
"That won't be such an easy task!" Leonardo replied in japanese.  
  
"We will see about that. En garde!"  
  
The male threw himself forward with a sword in each hand.  
  
CLANG!  
  
Leonardo stood face to face with his opponent, whose face he couldn't see since it was hidden behind a cloth.  
  
His dressing was strange, to say the least of it.  
  
White and black colours, a cape  
  
  
  
Six other shapes had jumped down from the fire ladders and attacked.  
  
Raphael tried to run his right sai into the chest of one attacker, but the shape easily dodged and did a strange kind of screwkick, sending the turtle into the garbage.  
  
"Fuck!" He ducked as spear whined over his head and burried its sharp metal- point into the wall.  
  
"Die, freak!" Said the attacker's feminine voice.  
  
She raised the spear again.  
  
Clang! Clonk!  
  
Damn, this guy was good, and he possessed a technique Leonardo had never experienced.  
  
It was like the gravitation laws didn't apply to his physical form at all.  
  
He came flying through the air again.  
  
A wind of death, with sharp edges of coldest steel.  
  
"Yaaah!" Leonardo threw himself on his shell and stabbed his right katana upwards but only penetrated air.  
  
We can't go on like this for much longer! Damn, they're gonna win!  
  
"Watch out Mike!" Donatello screamed while he tried to smack one of the ninjas in the head with his bo.  
  
Another one of them had unheard sneaked up on Michelangelos who was fighting some guy with a karate-stick.  
  
He had raised his sword for the deadly cut, but the warning made the turtle bend down, grabbing the opponents feet and swung him around as he twirled and successfully smacked his 'chuck at the arm of the person with the stick.  
  
The man dropped his weapon with a grunt of pain, before Mike gave him a proper punch, causing him to fall down hard.  
  
Just as the fighter with the sword was about to get up came Don's bo flying and knocked him in the back of the head.  
  
"Take this, you bitch!" Raphael growled as he finally nailed the attacking woman's spear with his hand and gave her a kick in the stomache.  
  
She fell backwards and lost the grip of her weapon.  
  
Raphael stood up, with a huge satisified grin as he approached his enemy.  
  
Finally! The odds are better now!  
  
His adversary had dropped both weapons and backed off, but he was not going to get away that easy.  
  
Leonardo had several questions he wanted answered.  
  
Clink!  
  
Someone had dropped something in the lane, because a thick smoke quickly welled up from the ground.  
  
"Tear-gas!" Donatello coughed.  
  
"Get down! Try to keep your breaths and head for the manhole!" Leonardo ordered.  
  
No one tried to stop them when they slipped back into the sewers and retreated.  
  
"Those fuckin' chickens!" Raphael spitted out when they had collected themselves and could breathe normally again.  
  
"We have to get up again! They might be the only key to Splinter's restoration."  
  
Leonardo grabbed a bag they had brought with them -but temporary left in the sewers- and pulled out their trenchcoats and hats.  
  
The latter ones were a little bit flattened, but it couldn't be helped.  
  
Once again, they were climbing up to find (as they had expted) the lane empty.  
  
An uncomfortable rest of the gas-smell was still in hanging in the air but they could at least breathe and the smell quickly decreased.  
  
They moved through the lane carefully without finding anything else but a crushed beaker that obviously had contained the gas.  
  
"I get a feeling that they are the ones who spread the toxin." Donatello said slowly and examined the broken beaker closely.  
  
"So do I." Leonardo replied. "Let's move."  
  
The quartet quietly moved out of the dead lane and along a rather empty street.  
  
Nowhere were there any traces of the ninjas they just had fought.  
  
They were just about to walk out from the dark alley they had passed through when Leonardo suddenly stopped and raised his hand.  
  
His brothers stopped walking and they were carefully gathering around Leo to see what was going on.  
  
Only a few yards away from was a telephone cubicle of the easy model with only a little roof above.  
  
No walls that protected against bad weather, or from evesdroppers.  
  
A young boy (how old could he be? Eight, nine?) was holding the receiver in one hand and looked to the right, then to the left all the time, as if he was nervous of being busted for calling.  
  
His hair was blonde and curly and his eyes were matching the blonde expression with a colour-mix of blue and green.  
  
Determinated, he removed the hand from the cradle and put the reciever's microphone part on a decent distance from the mouth as he began to whistle in different tones as he moved the phone closer.  
  
"What's the kid doin'?" Raphael whispered.  
  
"Phreaking." Answered Donatello quietly.  
  
"He does what? Can you for hells sake skip the geek-talk and say what he does, IN ENGLISH?"  
  
"It's called phreaking!" Don scowled angrily. "It's a slang-name for techniques to fool telephones so that you can call for free. Some phones can be manipulated through specific sounds which serve the same purpose as codes. Whistling is an old trick known since the 70s when a blind man accidentially discovered the famous 2600hz signal used by AT&T's technical repairer."  
  
"Whatever he does, we will have to wait until he leaves before we can go out on the street." Leonardo said lowly and sat down with his shell against the wall.  
  
The entire body ached after the encounter and it felt good to relax a little and loosen the muscle tensions.  
  
Those ninjas had managed to give him and his brothers a dozen of bruises and slight cuts. Nothing serious though. Most of the wounds had already stopped bleeding.  
  
How he longed for a bath and a relaxing evening in front of the TV instead, but the voice of Duty quickly pulled him back to reality.  
  
Meanwhile had the kid managed to override the telephone's security and started to talk to somebody.  
  
"Hi unc', it's me. Yea, I'm in the corner of Swift's Avenue and Marker Street..."  
  
The four mutants listened lukewarmly until they suddenly heard something that made them prick up the ears.  
  
"...they lost, and pretty bad too. I used that smoke-thingie as you said... Yea, the sewer-monsters got away too, is that bad? ... Yea, the poison- stuff is still down there. ... Yes. ... No. ... No.... Yes, I know they aren't human. Do you think they'll all die? ... 'kay. ... Hurry, why? I thought to... Ok, unc'. ... I will."  
  
The last words were pronounce with clear sadness, and the boy looked down at the street as he hung up the phone and was about to go back to his bicycle when something inside Leonardo's head suddenly snapped.  
  
He couldn't even remember what happened the next minute because it was all hidden in darkness.  
  
They told him afterwards.  
  
Leonardo got up with a contorted, mad expression they had often seen in Raphael's face but never in HIS.  
  
With some big, fast steps he reached the child who turned around and stared at him in shock when he recognized that the creature behind him was not even human.  
  
Leo's hands grabbed his collar and lifted him a good bit over the ground.  
  
"Look at me! Look at me, you fucking little creep!"  
  
Even Raphael became startled by hearing their leader swear like that.  
  
"What's your name?" Leonardo snarled and let the grip tighten.  
  
Mike was as shocked as the child, seeing his brother being more like Raphael than Raphael himself.  
  
He tried to say something but the sharp and cold voice of his brother cut him off:  
  
"WHAT IS YOUR NAME??!"  
  
"D-D-D-e-e-e... D-De-n-n-i...Dennice!"  
  
"What more?"  
  
"A-At-k-k-k-inson! Atkinson!"  
  
"And do I look like a freak to you?!"  
  
Dennice didn't answer.  
  
"Do I look like a freak to you?!" Leonardo growled menacing, making the boy shake like an aspen leaf.  
  
"Leo! Stop!" Raphael said, under some mysterious strange control. "He's just a kid!"  
  
His brother turned his head to him, the eyes were smouldering like embers.  
  
"Come back, Leo." Said Raph in a smooth voice.  
  
Leonardo released Dennice who whining of fear fell to the ground and began to crawl off.  
  
"Come back." Continued Raphael and patted Leo's cheek.  
  
Slowly, the turtle's eyes went back to normal and the mad rage in them fainted and died, and was replaced by fear and guilt.  
  
Dennice had got up on the bike and bicycled away with a pitful low howling.  
  
Donatello looked after him, then shrugged his shouders.  
  
HE knew how to re-locate that chap, Leonardo was more important right now.  
  
"Raphael! Brothers! What have I done??"  
  
"Come Leo, let's go back to the lair." Raphael replied and gave him his hat back.  
  
It had been blowing off during the encounter with that Dennice Atkinson.  
  
Leonardo didn't say one single word during their walk back.  
  
His silence was ominous.  
  
  
  
"What? Do you renounce your leader-role?? Leonardo? Do you know what you are doing?!"  
  
He couldn't bear to meet her gaze.  
  
The shame was too great.  
  
"There is no other way right now. I can't be a leader as long as I can't control myself, and I totally lost control today. April. I don't even know what happened. I don't remember it!"  
  
"Don't worry, that can happen to the best." She put a hand on his carapace, aware of that he could feel it.  
  
"It can not happen to a Gaijin, causing him to hurt somebody."  
  
"Hey!" Donatello said and walked inside. "Just thought to tell you that I have found a Dennice Atkinson in the register over pupils at the Harrison School."  
  
"What more?" Leonardo asked solemnly.  
  
"He is eight, in the third grade. Guardian is a Mr. B. Cooper. That's all I found. Well, that kid has pretty good grades, may I add."  
  
"Don't you ever feel unethical when you break into others systems?" April couldn't help but wonder.  
  
"Nah, not really. I am not destroying anything doing this and I don't intrude anywhere except when it's necessary." Don shrugged it off. "So, what are we gonna do?" He went on, turned to his brother.  
  
Leonardo sighed and shook his head slowly.  
  
"I don't know. I don't think I can shoulder the responsibility after what happened today."  
  
"It wasn't your fault."  
  
"Whose fault was it then?"  
  
"You must have been exposed to that poison, too. Probably while you were carrying Splinter back. I have examined the chemical and I think it can cause schizophrenical fits and psychosis in smaller quantities."  
  
A stroke of horror washed across Leonardo's face.  
  
"I don't think you need to worry much, since you didn't receive a bigger dose. But I don't know..." Donatello voice lowered. "I don't know, about Splinter. It looks bad. He may never wake up again."  
  
"Let's not think like that!" April commented with a pleading voice. "Just, let's hope there is a chance."  
  
The scientistic turtle nodded.  
  
"You're right. We should continue the search. I think our only clue in this is that kid."  
  
  
  
"Dennice!"  
  
He was standing at attention immediately, like a soldier who hears the commander's voice and realizes that refusal to obey is like asking for a punishment.  
  
This was the same, only worse.  
  
His uncle, the last relative he had in America besides his sister, had appeared in the doorway.  
  
The icy eyes embedded in that pale face was fixed at him and Dennice felt the discomfort crawl like parasitic worms under the skin.  
  
"You did well today, my boy!"  
  
Puh! Then he could relax a little.  
  
But his uncle rarely commended him or what he had done, so he would surely have something to object to at this time also.  
  
Things were not so bad as they could have been, though.  
  
His uncle paid for him and his sister and gave them everything they needed, and more.  
  
From the first day he had come in his care, Dennice had realized that his uncle was very wealthy and very smart.  
  
Just like dad used to be, before they put him into that lunatic place.  
  
After he tried to put the building where he worked on fire, among other things.  
  
"Console yourself, my boy. Next time if those monsters decide to attack you, I assure that won't be defenceless. See here." His uncle gave him a little box.  
  
It was covered by some metal and had a lock with a key and all.  
  
"Open it." Uncle said persistently.  
  
Carefully, taking as long time as possible, Dennice opened up the box and his eyes widened.  
  
"A pistol!"  
  
"Not just any pistol, my boy. This is my own specially designed model. Allow me to demonstrate."  
  
Uncle grabbed the weapon, raised its barrel so that it pointed at the chair then fired.  
  
The beam hit and shattered the piece of furniture as easy as it was made out of glass.  
  
"Since there is no recoil in this weapon, there shouldn't be any problems for you to use it."  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"Recoil?"  
  
"Yea."  
  
"A power that throws you backwards when you trigger a common fire-arm." His uncle explained in an unusual moment of pedagogic spirit.  
  
"Here do you justify the strength." He continued and put his forefinger on a little switch behind the barrel before handing it over to the kid in question.  
  
"Only use this weapon when you are in absolutely need of it. Do you understand? Do I make myself clear?"  
  
"Yes, uncle."  
  
"Good. I will soon go into the next phase of my little plan, and you my boy, shall help me!" He put a whitish, slender hand on Dennice's left shoulder.  
  
"With what?"  
  
"With destroying the beasts from the sewers, what else? I thought you would be more enthusiastic now when they so clearly have been abusing you."  
  
"I am. Promise! I could kill 'em if I must, uncle."  
  
The man's grave face was split in a smile.  
  
"Very good, Dennice. Very, very good. Now go get your books before I drive you to school!." His uncle said, still smiling. "And remember to keep the weapon as our little secret."  
  
The child nodded rapidly before he ran off to pack the material for the schoolday.  
  
His uncle stood there silently for a while, a glimpse of hate flashing in his cold eyes for a second.  
  
They were not going to win again, those worthless ninja-wretches.  
  
Not one more time.  
  
  
  
When they finally left the lair had the day already reached the afternoon time.  
  
All four of them had taken their time to recover from the pounding in the lane, plus that Donatello wanted to get a good insight in Splinter's condition and that too had required its time.  
  
Now, they were more determinted to find the person the poisoning, whom obviously wasn't the Dennice kid.  
  
Someone obviously had certain motives. Maybe the purpose was to kill Splinter off, causing weaknesses in their tight bonds and therefore making them more vulnerable.  
  
Whoever he is, he will pay dearly. I've got some points to make when we meet! Raphael thought and let his fingers slip down the cold metal of one of the said behind his back.  
  
"Here. By now we should be at the 7th Square Avenue." Leonardo looked up at the manhole above their heads. "The Harrison school should be just a little bit down the street."  
  
They carefully climbed up to the manhole and opened it, peeking up.  
  
Nobody was in sight.  
  
Good.  
  
Carefully, the four turtles got up from the sewers and looked around an empty courtyard.  
  
The school could also be seen from there.  
  
A typical boring building made of white bricks, with a little school yard in the front.  
  
On Leonardo's command (he had agreed to lead them after many persuasions), the mutant ninjas moved forward and hid behind a fence where they still had a pretty good view over the open area.  
  
He turned his head to Don.  
  
"Are you sure they will be quitting in five minutes?"  
  
"Positively. In case they haven't changed the schedule for today."  
  
"And the plan is...what?" Raphael asled, turned to Leo. "Do we snatch the kid and force him to tell?"  
  
"No. Let him do whatever he wish. We will follow on safe distance and watch. He will guide us to the source of all this without knowing it."  
  
"Sounds like a plan to me, dude." Michelangelo looked at the playground with a sudden sting of pain somewhere.  
  
HE had never had access to one of those when he was little, neither a normal school.  
  
Sentenced to forever being an outsider stung at times like these and he wished that Leo hadn't come up with that lurking-plan at all.  
  
A few minutes later rang a bell on the building's wall and after a few seconds slammed the front doors open and a crowd of screaming youngsters ran outside to the awaiting buses or cars at the parking lots.  
  
Some of the children jumped up on bikes and disappeared in small groups.  
  
The Awaited came walking among the last groups of children, speaking with two friends and unaware of that another group approached from the front.  
  
"Seems like it's gonna be some trouble." Whispered Michelangelo who immediately recognized the grins that usually decorate the faces of the school's bullies.  
  
"Hoho, Atkinson! How're your daddy?" A pretty fat boy with fair hair, dressed a leather jacker and jeans.  
  
"Shut up, Tod!"  
  
"He put the nurses on fire, huh? Huhuhhuh!" Tod grunted something that was supposed to be a laugh.  
  
"Don't care about the school-idiot, Dennice." Said one boy, a skinny one with big glassesm in a shrill voice. "He has no idea what he is talking about!"  
  
"Oh yeah, milksop? You wanna get those ugly glasses of yours smashed into the face, huh huhu?" Tod grabbed the one with glasses in the collar, raised the right fist and gave him a punch in the face.  
  
The Glasses fell to the ground, his newly ironed white shirt and fairly coloured pants got dirty.  
  
"Lay off Tod, you fuckin' idiot!" said Dennice and helped the Glasses up on his feet.  
  
His face was scratched and covered of dust and a little crack had appeared on the left glass.  
  
"Huh uh, you hear that boys? The wimp wanna fight! Huhuh uuhhu huhuh uh..."  
  
The other two guys who always hung around with Tod fell into the strange laughing.  
  
"Go feed your packeted and retarded ho-sister instead, you drip! Huhuh..." Tod pushed Dennice backwards.  
  
But Dennice got up immediately and like a stormwind on PCP and at least twentyfive mg:s of adrenaline, he gave the bully a lighting fast punch over the nose.  
  
"Uh?" was all Tod got out as he stumbled on the spot before he fell, blood dripping out of his nose.  
  
In a flash was Dennice over him, punching as hard as he could until a teacher came running out of the school.  
  
"DENNICE! TOD! STOP IT!" He barked and ripped the two combatants apart.  
  
"NOT A BAD WORD 'BOUT MY SISTER!!!" Dennice screamed enraged with death in the eyes.  
  
Tod got up and shook his head slowly, looking at the younger boy almost in disbelief.  
  
"You're so dead, pissant! SO DAM' DEAD!"  
  
"Quiet!" Bellowed the male teacher and grabbed the fattish boy's hair and pulled it roughly. "How many times have I told you to stop picking on the other pupils? There will be home-reports for both of you!"  
  
He shot a stare at Dennice who was still breathing hard.  
  
"No man! Dad's gonna beat me up!" Tod screamed and the colour of his face disappeared.  
  
"You should have thought about that earlier!" Said the teacher and let go of both of them.  
  
Tod and his two companions ran off the yard and Mr. West (the teacher) pulled up a tissue and cleaned up the Glasses' dirty face and helped him brush away the worst dirt.  
  
"Momma's gonna cry when she sees my new clothes." The boy whined.  
  
"Don't worry, Niels. I can call her and talk if you want."  
  
Niels nodded and put his glasses on the nose.  
  
"Okay boys, try to forget this and go home now!" He said and shove them forward to emphasize the words.  
  
"Okay. Bye Mr. West. C-ya tomorrow." Niels and his friend said.  
  
Dennice was silent.  
  
The three friends walked over to their bikes and parted, unaware of that they were being watched.  
  
"Quite a fighter." Raphael grinned, enjoying that he had been able to watch some daily school-action.  
  
"We must follow him quickly if he's biking!" Leonardo was already moving forward and left the hide-out behind the fences.  
  
  
  
Dennice Atkinson was a hard to persue, even through the outskirts of New York City.  
  
The mutants had no other choice but to watch him from distance and trying to move through the most deserted areas they could find.  
  
Sometimes they lost track for a while but always managed to found him again.  
  
Finally, the kid stopped before a hospital (that must have been private, because the surrounding enviroment seemed to be very expensive) and put the bike into the cycle stand before steered for a large park beside the buildings.  
  
Four turtles quickly moved over the streets, dressed in trenchcoats and hats, and hid in some bushes.  
  
The large park was filled of sickly people from the hospital who needed to get some rest out in the fresh air.  
  
A tall railing wasbeen was blocking their way but it was not very hard to force.  
  
They saw him ran up to a nurse with a wheelchair.  
  
In it sat a girl with long hair with the same colour as his. Her eyes were blue and the face looked remarkable like a doll's with all delicate features and soft curves.  
  
She was totally relaxed and the gaze was staring emptily into the air.  
  
"Hi Agnes!" He shouted and ran up to the one who had to be his sister and hugged her tightly.  
  
  
  
Dennice didn't know of many people in the world he could let near.  
  
Agnes was the only person on the whole planet he really loved. She was also the last part of their shattered family.  
  
Dad was a freak and locked-up in an institution.  
  
Mom had left them when Dennice was five.  
  
One day, she had just packed her stuff, said good-bye and left and from that day on had they never seen or heard anything from her.  
  
Three years later had dad been locked in and their unknown Uncle had legally got the guardian role.  
  
Well, the nurses at the hospital's nursing home actually did all the work.  
  
But it was Uncle who paid for the best nursing and treatment she could get.  
  
That was almost enough for Dennice to love him too, but he couldn't because Uncle was so stiff, cold and odd.  
  
Nobody knew Uncle for real and maybe they didn't even want to know?  
  
Ever since that disasterous accident hadn't a single word has passed over Agnes' lips.  
  
She had been hit by a train and her odds to reach restoration were microscopically.  
  
Fortunally had the engineer discerned the children on the tracks and activated the train's breaks, so she hadn't been hit with full force. Still, it had been enough to cripple her corporeal person.  
  
Afterwards, the doctors had explained that she would never regain the faculty of speech.  
  
Dennice never really understood or cared about all the academic prattle the doctors felt that they had to tell dad.  
  
He KNEW somewhere, that Agnes would be able to speak again in a future, distant or close.  
  
It was kept secret that she could even more a little, but not enough to walk or stand up.  
  
Nobody knew that, but them.  
  
Their own secret was theirs.  
  
  
  
As usual, Agnes didn't seem to be aware of his presence at the current moment.  
  
The nurse smiled down at him.  
  
"Can I drive her for a while?" The boy looked up at her with angel-eyes and she melted.  
  
"Of course." Her red, feminine mouth moved sensually when she spoke and if somebody had been pointing it out, that person had gotten a proper scolding 'cuz sister Annah never allowed anyone to be (as she apprehended it) rude. Especially not if the question in any way could be connected or related to anyhing sexual.  
  
"I will come back and get you in fifteen minutes, is that okay?"  
  
"Yeah. Don't worry, I'll look after her."  
  
Sister Annah smiled again and left, her white shawl fluttering in the wind.  
  
She was a saint and Dennice worshipped her.  
  
Not loved, just worshipped.  
  
Everything she did for Agnes, plus that she spent lots of her free time to help Agnes developing all that was left after the accident.  
  
With an endless reservoir of patience could she try to teach Agnes how to stand up, although that could only be done those times the girl was open for contacts from the world around, which was rarely since Agnes suffered from serious autism.  
  
Still, she could talk to him and him only.  
  
He looked into her eyes and saw the answers glowing in there in the blue landscape of her irises.  
  
Maybe it was just his imagination but it seemed to be real enough to be trusted.  
  
"Com'on, Agnes." He said, pushing the wheelchair forward. "Let's get up on the green!"  
  
  
  
After he had helped his sister out of the vehicle and put her back against a big oak-tree, Dennice sat down and began the conversation.  
  
"I have brought a CD with me, for you." He dug in the schoolbag and fished it up.  
  
Pet Sounds by Beach Boys.  
  
One of Agnes' favoritesband from the time when they lived in CA and used to play on the beach, watching the surfers fly over the waves with broad laughs.  
  
"I wanna try that someday!" He had told Agnes who laughed and answered, "Yeah, me too. I am gonna become a Surfer Girl and have a handsome surfer- boyfriend to kiss me on the sundown."  
  
"Eeek! GROSS!!"  
  
And at that time had the music from an old cassette tape-recorder been playing:  
  
Little surfer little one  
  
Made my heart come all undone  
  
Do you love me, do you surfer girl  
  
Surfer girl my little surfer girl  
  
I have watched you on the shore  
  
Standing by the ocean's roar  
  
Do you love me do you surfer girl  
  
Surfer girl surfer girl  
  
We could ride the surf together  
  
While our love would grow  
  
In my Woody I would take you everywhere I go  
  
So I say from me to you  
  
I will make your dreams come true  
  
Do you love me do you surfer girl  
  
Surfer girl my little surfer girl  
  
Girl surfer girl my little surfer girl  
  
"How ROMANTIC!" Agnes had said dreamily, taken by the beaty of the song.  
  
He himself prefered the tracks from Pet Sounds.  
  
Although they were mostly about love (that gross thing when you kiss and stuff) the music was always connected to the pleasant memories of a beach, bathing in sunlight and sparkling water with joyful people laughing out there in the waves.  
  
Music accompanied to the sound of swells.  
  
Dennice picked up the little portable CD-player from his backpack and plugged in the two miniature-speakers and pressed Play.  
  
Wouldn't it be nice if we were older  
  
Then we wouldn't have to wait so long  
  
And wouldn't it be nice to live together  
  
In the kind of world where we belong  
  
I know it's going to make it that much better  
  
When we can say goodnight and stay together  
  
Agnes eyes let out a laugh.  
  
"Yea, it will be nice Dennice, when we can get out of here and become tramps, like the ones Bruce Springsteen sings about you know."  
  
"'cuz tramps like us, maybe we were born to run?" Dennice said as the Beach Boys song from continued to pour out of the speakers.  
  
Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray  
  
It might come true  
  
Maybe then there wouldn't be a single thing we couldn't do  
  
"How are things going?"  
  
"We're like occupied. Uncle's hunting sewer-monsters. I've seen them!"  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yea! One of them were about to kill me, but like, let me go. I think they know I'm involved in Uncle's weird hunt."  
  
"Just be careful, okay? You are the only one I have besides sister Annah."  
  
He grabbed her hand and squeezed it hard.  
  
"I can try I think but Uncle is so sure of what to do. You know, he found some weird fighting guys and I like, saved their butts in the morning. Those monsters had weapons like swords and such, like in a movie by that Chinese guy, you know..."  
  
"Bruce Lee?"  
  
"Yea, Bruce Lee. It was like an awesome movie! I sat on the ladder but they never saw me."  
  
"You're such a little spy, Dennice!" Her eyes sparkled humorous for a second. "If you leave, just don't forget to take me along, okay?"  
  
"I would never!" He promised and suddenly recognized that sister Annah was approaching.  
  
Time had really went by fast.  
  
"I gotta go home." There were only those lonely moments when they could speak undisturbed which were worth something.  
  
To see the nurses feed Agnes and do all other daily things were totally useless to see.  
  
They didn't give him anything and she had told him to avoid those moments.  
  
"So here are you sitting, all comfortable in the grass?" Sister Annah smiled with the whole face.  
  
Her strong hands carefully got a hold of Agnes and carefully put her back in the wheelchair.  
  
"I gotta go now, sister Annah. Or else unc' will start worry!"  
  
"I understand, Dennice. Good-bye for now." She patted his head.  
  
He turned around and hurried out of the park without noticing four shadows that jumped over the rails and followed him on distance, like a hyena follows a lion which has killed its prey.  
  
  
  
After about fifteen minutes had he reached a stinking industrial area.  
  
Dennice scowled at the smell and the buildings, asking himself why did Uncle had choosen to live in that dump.  
  
On his right were a few general labourers having a break for a smoke.  
  
They recognized him as that kid who lived in the area with some inventor- relative, and all now and then came niking on his bluish bicycle.  
  
Usually, the men waved at him and that day was no exception.  
  
He waved back and passed their area, before reaching his so-called home.  
  
An old factory piled up ahead of him and a shiver crawled through the backbone.  
  
He's too cold and odd! Dennice thought and swallosed as he biked into a broken gate, into the large asphalted yard.  
  
Wwith a crawling feeling of discomfort, Dennice approached the maingate that daily could be opened with a keylock.  
  
The code was 1804 and also the year when Napoleon Bonaparte became emperor.  
  
Uncle was totally obsessed by Napoleon, as person and ruler and even had a large portrait of the same inside his office.  
  
A little click from the lock told that the code was corrected and he could enter.  
  
He pushed the door open with the right hand and slowly slipped inside as the door closed behind him.  
  
  
  
"The coast is clear, let's go!" Leonardo whispered and moved up to the door. "Can you crack this thing, Donatello?"  
  
"That will take hours, so I'll simple use the code." Don replied with a small grin and pressed the numbers 1-8-0-4.  
  
The door opened.  
  
"I saw him typing it." He explained to his surprised brothers and slowly pushed the door open with his shoulder.  
  
"Now, let's adapt our primary ninja-techniques." Leonardo said lowly and they nodded as they moved forward without making a sound.  
  
Upset voices echoed through the empty corridor but they couldn't hear any specific words.  
  
Mike suddenly waved because he had found an unlocked door. Behind it was a stairway up.  
  
With Leonardo in the lead moved the mutant slowly up along the stairs, hearing the voices grow stronger.  
  
Slowly slowly...one more step...listen...look up...nobody there...one step...slowly...  
  
  
  
At the same time in a different part of the old building walked Dennice Atkinson through his uncle's scientific experiment-rooms.  
  
I'm always getting' creepy 'cuz of this stupid place! He thought and shivered.  
  
Inside the empty rooms and halls were all lights turned off and he fumbled, trying to find the switch, then found it and waited for a while, as all the fluorescent lamps flashed before the beams of light was stabilized.  
  
Cold rays of white light fell down on the metal-surfaces, giving his creeps an extra kick and causing a chillness of cold sweat break out all over.  
  
If an insane maniac who had murdered his victims wanted to cut them open and store the bodyparts in containers, that room was the absolutely ultimate place for doing that.  
  
The walls were made out of blank, white tiles. A floor of white clinkers and white-painted ceiling.  
  
Large desks of metal, chairs of metal, special designed lamps for surgery, strange X-ray machines and large metal-shelfs along the walls, filled with bottles with chemicals and surgical instrument.  
  
Worst of all though, were the large glass-tubes at the end of the room.  
  
They were absolutely large enough to store the body of a human inside.  
  
Maybe that was what they once were designed for?  
  
He could easily imagine them; pale like corpses, caught inside a prison of glass with life-sustaining liquids everywhere, tubes running into every larger opening in the body.  
  
A way more powerful shiver went through Dennice as he carefully moved forward, up to the door that help him getting away from that horrible operating theatre.  
  
Suddenly, he was struck of a indeterminable wish to examine one of the glasstubes closer. Maybe that would help keeping the nightmares they had actually caused, away?  
  
It felt like an unknown force controlled his limbs when he slowly moved up to one of the three tubes and looked inside.  
  
Never before had he even thought of approaching them.  
  
He had always kept a safe distance on at least four yards and that never allowed him to see any details.  
  
When he now looked through the glass could he clearly discern that on the floor of the tube rested several small rubes and nails.  
  
With a slow movement he looked upwards at the metalic top of the capsule and could easily descry that identical nails were attached to the metal- wall of the top.  
  
It felt like a gangrene was exploding inside him and he shook as he'd gotten a shiver fit.  
  
What kind of dark devilries was his uncle involved in?  
  
All lights got turned off and he whirled around with a gasp, just as the door slammed closed and it got pitch dark.  
  
A feeling came over him. It felt like he wasn't alone in the hall anymore.  
  
"Who's there?" He asked with a little voice filled of dread.  
  
Of course did nobody answer.  
  
There was only silence.  
  
Dennice took a step backward and felt his back press against the cold, thick glass of the big glass capsule.  
  
What if he was the next one to get there?  
  
(-Come and see the preserved boy from California, in perfect shape! He's been floating in formalin for twohundreds of years and is practically unchanged!)  
  
The heart pounded like a tilthammer and he was suddenly more scared than he'd ever been in his entire life.  
  
Images flashed before his eyes: himself floating in a tube, naked, discoloured, living in a nightmare from which he couldn't wake up, thanks to cruel machines that kept his body going.  
  
"WHAT DO YOU WANT??!" He sceamed loadly to the silent watcher in the darkness.  
  
But only the echo answered him.  
  
He started to wonder if the third person maybe was nothing but his own imagination.  
  
Perhaps it had only been the wind that closed the door...but then...what about the lights?  
  
Hell, that didn't matter!  
  
All he wanted to do was escaping.  
  
Only a few yards to go, only to find the handle, push it open, and run.  
  
And no normal living creature with ability to shut down lights and close a door could see in pitch darkness, right?  
  
Fumbling, trying to make as little noise as possible, he slowly move to the left, towards the door.  
  
  
  
Meanwhile Dennice had been looking at big glass tubes, had Leonardo and his three brothers reached an opening in the wall, from where they had discovered a laboratory, not very unlike the ones they had seen at the Utoms' facilities.  
  
But scarier.  
  
The somehow familiar, and sharp voice was distinct enough to be totally apprehended. It said:  
  
"...they are not bad, I already knew that. I have had the displeasure of meeting them in person. I never EXPECTED you to beat them, this first time. Hell, aren't you the Brotherhood of Evil? Do you truly believe you could defeat them, just like that? As if they were some stupid first-grade pupils? Nobody have managed to overcome them so far. But I will!  
  
Becauce today, gentlemen, and women, do I possess the winning cards with the symbols of SKULLS, meaning the final doom of the mutant turtles!"  
  
I recognize his voice from somewhere! I have heard it before. I know that I have! Leonardo tried to get a view of the speaker but he still couldn't see him.  
  
"Then why do you want our favours, mr. Cooper?" Said a voice he immediately remembered as the leader of the attackers, the one he had fought in person earlier the same day.  
  
"You want to defeat them, getting your symbols of power. I simply want them dead, no matter if you are going to use their remnants for some ceremonies." Replied the sharp voice. "Nobody can do it alone and we are together in this, giving us an ultimate advantage." The voice became softer and more businesslike. "In the end do you want what I want, don't you? We should not waste our precious time at these stupid little quarrels when the freaks which have dishonoured your pride are running loose in the city. Once, they crushed my plans and they will try once more, although they will fail. Fail so miserably! Hahaha!"  
  
The laugh was sharper than the blades of his katanas and colder than the floating nitrogen Don insisted to buy all now and then to freeze important specimen.  
  
Then finally, the man shifted his position and finally stepped into the light so that the four turtles could see him.  
  
"Shit, that can't be...!" Raph began.  
  
"…anybody else..." Don filled in.  
  
"…than..." Mike tried to end the sentence but got cut off by Leonardo:  
  
"Baxter Stockman!"  
  
  
  
  
  
Almost!  
  
I am almost there!  
  
Dennice' hand had found the handle and he pressed it down slowly, then pushed the door open with a violent move.  
  
The metalplate on the door immediately got in contact with a magnet attached to the wall, holding it open.  
  
It was closed automatically if the fire alarm went off.  
  
At that time didn't Dennice even think about it. In front of him was a dusky corridor, barely with enough lights.  
  
He ran up to another door then stopped when he heard squelching steps behind.  
  
Something inside screamed to him to not turn around but curiousity won and he threw a glance over the shoulder.  
  
An inaudible scream exploded inside.  
  
Out of the door came a horrible creature shambling.  
  
Worse of all was that in its half-melted horrific features could he discern two total human eyes, in an iceblue colour that penetrated his soul and made his heart freeze in the chest.  
  
It was just like being pulled into a typical bad horror-movie in the Friday the 13th genre or something.  
  
Whatever it was it couldn't be human, because it had nails that seemed to have veeb made out of black metal.  
  
Some spots of its deformed body were also covered with that strange horn- like materiak.  
  
On its back was some kind of freakin' carapace attached.  
  
Just like a turtle!  
  
The Thing opened its broad mouth and let out a sound that sounded like a mixture of a cow's troating, a cat's screaming and some metalic machine's squeaking.  
  
Dennice was not late to follow suit (although his loud screech sounded a lot more humans than anything this thing could get out of the vocal cord, or whatever it had), and he ran down the empty corridor.  
  
  
  
Baxter was cut off in the middle of a sentence by a shrill sound that came from the factory's eastern parts.  
  
It had been so piercing that even the seven ninja-dressed white people without hoods jumped in surprise.  
  
The scream continued and came closer.  
  
A door was slammed open and the four mutants could see the Dennice kid run down some metalstairs like a whirlwind.  
  
In the hurry, he slipped and fell in the stairway, rolling down at the floor with a crash, suddenly whining instead of screaming.  
  
"Dennice!" Baxter walked up to him quickly and pulled the child upwards, but he fell to the floor again, howling and sobbing.  
  
"What in the whole hell..." Baxter began as a series of load groanings, combined with a choir of metallic, undead voices was heard from the top of the stairs.  
  
The scientistic inventor raised his gaze and recognized the monstrosity beginning its way down the stairs.  
  
"Eliminate it!" He said sharply to the ninjas who were totally paralyzed.  
  
His sharp voice woke them up from the shock and firearms were quickly picked up and they started to shoot at the Thing.  
  
Most of the bullets ricocheted against the metals causing sparkles dance all over the stair.  
  
Dennice had crawling retreated to a table, both eyes wide shut eyes, covering the ears with his hands.  
  
Dark coloured blood squirted over the stairs and the being gave up a deathcry as it fell down and finally rolled out on the floor in front of the star.  
  
Disgusted and terror-struck, the ones with weapons shot at the dead body until their guns were out of ammo and metalclicks had replaced the bangs of exploding gunpowder.  
  
"What the fuck is this, mr. Cooper?!" Asked the leader without a name when he had regained the faculty of speech.  
  
"A mistake I used as a lab-rat while I was producing toxins." Answered Baxter calmly and scrutinized the dead body. "I had to create something living that could serve as a substitute for the mutated reptiles and their rat. I was pretty proud of this one, I really was. Being able to create such a lifeform out of some single bloodsamples is a scientific breakthrough, although I'm sure that the Nobel Foundation would reject my work and accuse me for cruelty to animals." He snorted. "They have no sense of true science. To get forward, we have to do our sacrafices. Do we not?"  
  
"Yes... I guess you are...right." Answered the nameless, with a disgusted grimace.  
  
"Come out here Dennice, my boy. Don't be afraid." Baxter called, now with a soft and gentle voice. "I want you to watch the miracle of science, considering that you will be the one to carry on my work, one day."  
  
  
  
"I have seen fuckin' enough already! Let's nail the madman!" Hissed Raphael with death glowing in the eyes, his hands holding the sharp sais.  
  
He shot a quick glance at Leo, who nodded as he threw off the disguise and pulled out his katanas.  
  
  
  
"I don't wanna!"  
  
"You don't have to be afraid, Dennice. It's dead. Look at it! Isn't it a miracle of the modern world's science, my boy?"  
  
The child didn't answer and kept staring at the dead creature without getting an inch closer.  
  
Baxter was standing behind, hands on his shoulders.  
  
"A true scientist is struggling to reach a goal. That goal is the answer of a question. At some ways, you will be forced to use controversial methods if you want to go further. Or else you will be blocked and never find away around. Keep that in mind, Dennice, my boy. As a true scientist, you cannot let your feelings prevent you from working. That is a golden rule in our world."  
  
Dennice looked at the creature and suddenly started to cry.  
  
Why, he didn't know.  
  
Still, deep inside, somewhere inside, he KNEW why.  
  
It was because of those eyes...  
  
The iceblue, human eyes which couldn't belong to a monster, as Uncle told him.  
  
They had kept feelings inside the blue, a fear worse than his, a pain worse than anythingelse and a sorrow so unfathomably deep that it made him totally black inside.  
  
Yet, he was glad it had been killed.  
  
Now it wouldn't suffer anymore.  
  
Whatelse besides death could a malformed freak like this wish?  
  
What if the mutants he had heard his uncle talk about as murderous monsters was just as human as any of them? Maybe they were also going to die thanks to that poison uncle had told him to drop into the sewer?  
  
Suddenly, Dennice just wanted to disappear.  
  
From New York, from his cold and odd uncle.  
  
Forget everything, never even touch the subject again.  
  
Go somewhere else and never come back.  
  
Ever.  
  
  
  
"Hyyyyaaa!!!"  
  
"What the hell…?!" All adults in the room turned around at the shout.  
  
Only Dennice didn't move and kept looking at the dead body before his feet.  
  
Four shadows jumped down from a ramp, down on the same floor they were standing on.  
  
"The mutants!" Baxter yelled coldly. "Destroy them!"  
  
"Freeze! Or else you'll be pumped of bullets, all four of you!" Said Nameless leader as the four of them who were armed raised their weapons at the same time.  
  
"Try something else, wrenchhead. You have no bullets left in the magazine!" Said the one with the katanas and gave the leader a hard punch in the face.  
  
He fell back, spitting and cursing and the remaining armed humans pulled their triggers only to hear the same metallic clicks as before, instead of the sweet sound of gunpowder.  
  
The next second, everything was a total muddle.  
  
With warcries attacked the human respective the non-human ninjas attack each other, which resulted in a mixed choir of punches/kicks and cries.  
  
Baxter started to moved away from them, perhaps considering a possible escape-plan.  
  
But suddenly came an enraged turtle flying through the air and landed on him, nailing him to the ground.  
  
"Hello there, you motherfucker! Happy to see me?" He snarled and gritted his teeth.  
  
Baxter just gave him a toxic but yet confident glare.  
  
Did that sick fuck see something he didn't?  
  
Raphael was just about to turn around when a heavy weight crashed on his shell and a smash in the head made his spin.  
  
He had not reacted as quick as the well-trained ninja guys at the attack.  
  
Everything had happened so unbelievable fast.  
  
Dennice saw one of the turtle-monsters attack his uncle, shouting something.  
  
If is uncle would die, that would mean the end of Agnes' treatment and he couldn't allow that to happened.  
  
So he moved up to his uncle's bookshelf and grabbed a heavy book called "The quantum physics actual existence seen from philosophical perspectives", then ran forward, jumped, hit the monster's carapace and smashed the book on his head.  
  
The turtle took the count with a grunt and his uncle immediately got up and brushed off his grey-coloured jeans and white shirt.  
  
"Well done, my boy! Very well done!" he said. "Now let's get out of here and leave the ninja-morons to their fate."  
  
Since there was not the time and neither the place to argue, Dennice follow Baxter to the stairs at the opposite side.  
  
  
  
This time we'll finish it! Thought Leonardo and the second after cut his katana through the throat of the leading ninja.  
  
He fell to the ground without a sound, since his vocal organs had been sliced, and died.  
  
Leo turned around and saw Michelangelo fight that female ninja who only had a stick as weapon.  
  
She should have been the leader, no kidding.  
  
Her movements and techniques were way above the skills the dead man at his feet had mastered.  
  
Four out of the seven ninjas were already dead and one was unconscious.  
  
The two remaining and the female and a man (who had to be close relatives since they had exactly the same hair-colour and noses) who had been fighting wildly began to slow down, probably because they were tired.  
  
The man suddenly turned his attention to Leonardo and did a sweeping gesture with the small lance in his hands.  
  
Leonardo ducked and answered by running the sword into his intestines, giving him a quick ticket to Charon.  
  
Mike jumped as the female did a last desperate lunge before kicking her hard in the head.  
  
She collapsed and didn't raise again.  
  
  
  
During that time had Raphael tried to collect himself from the smack in the head.  
  
It was aching, making it hard to fight, but fortunally all fighting seemed have reached its final end.  
  
Baxter!  
  
Where was he?  
  
He was going to pay for everything he had done, and everything he wanted to do!  
  
  
  
Donatello had left the fight to Miche and Leo and joined him.  
  
"How are you feeling?" He asked and carefully examined his brother's head.  
  
"What the fuck do you think, smarthead?" Raphael growled and put his three- fingered hands to the head.  
  
"No! Don't touch the swelling! It will only making it worse." Don exhorted. "Just take it easy."  
  
"Baxter's getting' away goddamnit!"  
  
"Oh no he won't."  
  
His brother pulled him up on the feet and all by a sudden Raphael felt stronger.  
  
"You need to move a little and you will feel more alerted soon."  
  
Just while he said that knocked Michelangelo the female fighter and they could fully concentrate to find Baxter.  
  
"Up there!" Mike pointed at the ramps above them.  
  
Sound of running feet was easy to hear since the floors were totally made out of metallic bars.  
  
"Come on!" Leonardo commanded and ran up the stairs in the hunt of the madman.  
  
  
  
"They are coming, uncle!" Dennice almost screamed.  
  
"Silent!" Uncle answered harshly and threw a look over the shoulder. -The mutated freaks have to come this way, good!  
  
He got up his own gun he had been hiding for just these kinds of occurrences.  
  
Come on like good little mutants. Walk right into my fire-line!  
  
  
  
His brother and he moved quickly, determinated to stop Baxter totally this time.  
  
He couldn't be seen or heard anymore but he was obviously still there somewhere, lurking.  
  
Soon, they reached an L-shaped corner and Leonardo watched to the right but didn't see a trace of the one they sought.  
  
"The coast is clear, let's move!"  
  
At the same time went a shot off and hit the wall just a few inches before his face.  
  
"GET DOWN!"  
  
It wasn't necessary to tell them that, they had at the same timer as the shot went off, thrown themselves to the floor.  
  
  
  
"Hell! I missed!" Hissed Baxter to no one in particular.  
  
Dennice had slipped away on his own and that was fine with him.  
  
Made it easier to act.  
  
He raised again and shot another warning before retreating to the southern parts of the factory where an exit was located.  
  
Outside waited a car.  
  
  
  
"He's trying to get out! Raph and Don, try to find a way around so that you can intercept him! I and Mike will keep on distracting. Go!"  
  
They did as he said without a question because there was no time to discuss other options.  
  
Leonardo silently prayed that his judgement hadn't been clouded by Baxter's poison.  
  
  
  
The two brothers were running as fast as they could, successfully avoiding being hit by any shot although THAT was probably more thanks to luck than profession.  
  
He and Raphael was an odd team.  
  
Donatello knew that his brother at times looked at him as a geek even if Raphael was aware of his brother's ability to fight when needed.  
  
Well, that afternoon there were no doubts at all.  
  
Probably because Raph was too engulfed by the thought of crushing Baxter.  
  
Not that Donatello had anything particular against that, not after he had witnessed what that psychotic maniac had done: using some blood from one of them (most likely found at some place they had been battling) to create a kind of clone with feelings to use as a test-rat.  
  
There was no place for quarter for a man who had done such a thing.  
  
Raphael's fist held so tight around the sais that his knuckles went white.  
  
I certainly wouldn't want to be in Baxter's clothes now. Donatello thought as they climbed upwards to the ramp.  
  
  
  
He shot sometimes to keep them back as he got closer and closer to the exit.  
  
Beneath him were the boilingplant where he heated water and other chemicals.  
  
Now, the exit wasn't far away.  
  
A smile of triumph curved his facial features when he turned from the two stupid, persitent mutants to the door.  
  
The smile was shattered when a three-fingered fist made contact with his face and broke his nose.  
  
With a grunt fell Baxter backwards, blood streaming out of his nose.  
  
Raphael looked down at him with flashing eyes.  
  
This was what he'd been waiting for for quite a while.  
  
  
  
Baxter looked up at the mutant who had punched him and he knew that they would goddamn win AGAIN.  
  
He had dropped the weapon in surprise and it was at that moment being picked up by the second mutant.  
  
Unbelievable, what did it take to dispose of them?  
  
Well, they could get the pleasure to believe that he was out of the game but then he wanted to do it his own way.  
  
Still choking, he got up and leaned towards the metallic rail, feeling heat steams caress the hair in his neck.  
  
The turtle came towards him again with his sharp weapon raised in the air to give the final stab but Baxter was not willing to give him the joy of killing him.  
  
With a quick move, he volted backwards over the rail and fell without a sound into the big tank of deadly hot water.  
  
  
  
All of them were there now, looking down, seeing Baxter's body disappear in the wild water then floating up, displaying the horrible blisters on his skin.  
  
Not a move, not even a death struggle.  
  
"He is done for." Don declared silently.  
  
"And so are you!" A light voice interrupted them from behind.  
  
Dennice looked at them from the opening, with dark hard eyes.  
  
He opened his mouth and it felt unreal as he told them what he knew:  
  
"The factory is prepared with bombs which will blow if Uncle dies. Now when the watch can't feel his pulse, the bombs're ready to blow this place up. And you too!"  
  
His little voice became cold and harsh.  
  
"You have destroyed everything for me! We had money, we had our lives all good, and we could have left when we were ready! You have destroyed everything! I hope you die, and you will! This door will lock when I shut it. Bye!"  
  
He slammed the door shut and ran as a gale down the stairs, reaching the yard and his lightblue bike.  
  
With a quick move, Dennice was sitting on the saddle, pedaling as fast as he could to get away from the factory.  
  
  
  
Michelangelo who had been standing closest to the door threw himself against it and tried to open it.  
  
The little fellah had been right: it was as locked as it could be.  
  
"Fuck!" He cursed and threw a quick glance at his brothers. "We'll never get outta here in time, guys!"  
  
"Let me." Donatello hurried forward and examined the door.  
  
"Yeah, it's controlled by a keylock. Let's see here… One, eight, zero, four!"  
  
A low buzzing sound.  
  
The door was open!  
  
"Our luckyday." Don said with a little smirk while they rushed down the stair.  
  
Just when they reached the yard came the first explosion. Powerful enough to make the ground shake a little.  
  
"We must find a way down the sewers, there'll be lots of people here soon!" Leonardo said alarmed.  
  
Their disguises had been ripped into pieces inside and whatever that was left of them would definitely be destroyed now.  
  
Suddenly, he remembered and smacked his face.  
  
"Shit, shit, shit times two!"  
  
"Sounds like times three to me, dude!"  
  
"This is not the right place to joke, Mike! We forgot to look for information about that toxin Splinter is poisoned with! All these efforts and we're now back at the first square! HELL!"  
  
"Nah, not really!" assured Donatello with a smile, totally unconcerned by the explosion.  
  
A quick move and he showed something he had stuck into his belt.  
  
A CD.  
  
"I found it on one of Baxter's workbenches as we sneaked inside. The label says 'Daily backup of documents'. Let's just hope it's not encrypted."  
  
Leonardo let out a sigh of both relief and grief.  
  
"Well, if it is, we have just blew our only chance to find a cure." He said slowly. "Just let's try to find a way to the sewers and go home so that you can look through that CD."  
  
"I agree fully dude, and by the way, ya think this hole will do?" Michelangelo beamed as he showed them a manhole he had discovered under some large cardboards which were making room against the wire fence.  
  
"Let's hurry!" Leonardo shouted and slipped down the manhole, into the sewers.  
  
His brothers followed and Raphael put the manhole cover back in place.  
  
Finally back home, in our own and safe enviroment. Leo thought with a feeling mixed of relief and oppression.  
  
  
  
  
  
"Finding anything, brainmaniac?"  
  
Raphael leaned over his shoulder interested.  
  
"Well, Baxter hadn't encrypted this information by some strange reason. I guess it's our amazing LUCK that strikes again. Accordingly to these journals was Baxter using that clone to produce a toxin that would give only mutants powerful hallucinations and reduced brain-capacity. I have no idea how much of it Splinter was exposed to, but let's hope there is still a chance. I have already an andidote figured out."  
  
"Then why in the whole fucking hell are you sittin' here??!" Raphael exploded.  
  
Donatello sighed.  
  
When Raph was in that mood, trying to argue about it would only make things worse.  
  
Without a word, he rose from the chair and walked into the room where he kept all chemicals he had been collecting during the years.  
  
  
  
"Sensei..." Leonardo stroke Splinter's furry hand tenderly.  
  
At first, he thought that now when they had a possible cure, Splinter would become healthy immediately.  
  
But Donatello had pricked a hole into that dream and explained that their father and master might wake up, but then there was a risk he would be handicapped, mentally or physically...or both.  
  
They had acted as quick as they could. Was it too late anyway?  
  
He sighed and let his gaze fall on April's sleeping form on some felts in a corner.  
  
She must have been dead-tired, worrying over Splinter and them the entire day.  
  
When they just had returned, she'd been asking them about the events but barely listened. Then, she had walked over to the felts to "relax a little".  
  
Two minutes later, and she had passed out completely.  
  
Neither of them would dream about waking her up again.  
  
She really deserved that sleep.  
  
  
  
"Alright." Donatello looked tired and broken after working for hours, putting machined together and making brews, under a horrible pressure. "He is plugged into this machine that's supposed to clean his body-fluids from the toxin. I also gave him plenty of injections and this is as much as I can do right now. We can only wait and see."  
  
All four of them sat down on the floor, eventually trying to sleep.  
  
Nobody couldn't though and a during a very long night, they were watching their Sensei.  
  
Sometimes, one of them dabbed his forehead with a tepid towel, just like Splinter used to do when one of them were sick back in those days when they had been nothing but children.  
  
Besides that, there wasn't much else to do than sit, wait, hope and pray.  
  
  
  
About 6:00am. Splinter finally woke up from the lethargy and started to move.  
  
Michelangelo carefully shook April and she joined them, sitting around Splinter's temporary bed on the floor.  
  
The rat's eyes flicked and after what felt like an eternity, he spoke.  
  
"Where am I?" The voice was the same old voice they knew, but shattered and frail.  
  
"It's alright master, you're home." Leonardo assured with a feeling of unbelievable joy and relief as he took the old rat's hand in his.  
  
"Leonardo... I have had these most mysterious dreams. Where have I been dwelling?"  
  
"Nowhere but home, sensei. Nowhere."  
  
****  
  
  
  
"…then he left and we just got out in time before the building blew up." Michelangelo finished the story and sipped on a coke.  
  
"And the two siblings are gone, probably for good. The hospital staff found the girl's empty wheelchair in the garden the same afternoon." April added slowly. "I believe they have bolted."  
  
"What a surprise. Who hadn't?" Raphael muttered as he cleaned his sais with a tissue.  
  
"I don't think they'll be back."  
  
"So?"  
  
April shrugged the shoulders.  
  
"I have this feeling though, that we haven't seen those two for the last time." Leonardo finished before joining the others on the floor.  
  
"But we have definitely seen BAXTER for the last time." Raphael added. "He is finally off where he should be."  
  
"Let's hope so." April said in a muffled voice they didn't even hear.  
  
  
  
Deep down, below the destroyed factory where they had encountered Baxter Stockman and the strange ninja clan was a little bunker located.  
  
Nobody knew of its existence or purpose.  
  
It was filled of strange electric equipments and machines and in the middle of bunker's space was a box of plexiglass standing.  
  
Inside rested a human male body with a needle stung into a vein on each arm.  
  
His head was toally shaved and there were hundreds of little electrodes with small and sharp needles pricked into the skin, touching the cranial.  
  
All cables were connected to the strange machines with dozens of digital displays where data was flowing endlessly, no matter if somebody read it or not.  
  
At some times, the muscles in the male's face jerked, and sometimes went a shiver through his naked body.  
  
Right after Baxter Stockman had willingly thrown himself into death in the factory above, the eyes of the man opened up and the top of the box he was lying was sliding aside automatically.  
  
The machines' rhythmical data-flow changed their patterns.  
  
Slowly, the man sat up and breathed for a long time, feeling how all cables that ran from the head touched his bare back.  
  
His facial features were surprisingly identical to Baxter's.  
  
As if they were twins.  
  
A smile suddenly broke out on the male's lips and his eyes sparkled in the darkness.  
  
Not that anybody knew of it...  
  
  
  
  
  
1.1 Epilogue  
  
The railroad wagon was filled of hay, fodder for animals most likely.  
  
A sliding door was open, allowing to let the air whirl in and make some of the dried grass fly around.  
  
Dennice sat in the opening and watched the landscape run by.  
  
Agnes was sitting by his side, also watching the Running World.  
  
He slowly pulled his arm around her in a tender embrace, and felt the weak resonse from her almost atrophied muscles.  
  
Probably had the police sent out wanted posters everywhere, but those also spoke about a disabled girl.  
  
Agnes COULD barely walk, unless she could lean herself on her little brother.  
  
She needed lots of training but they had also all time in the world.  
  
Time to be tramps.  
  
Time to live like the next day didn't exist.  
  
Time to forget everything in the past and look into the future instead.  
  
"Finally...on the...way..." She got out with a noticeable effort.  
  
"Yeah sis. We're finally rollin'."  
  
"I love...to...live..."  
  
"Yea. Life rules." Her brother answered and looked at the aurora in the east.  
  
The end 


End file.
